Small Tri Alpha news blurp

[mvanwink5]

their (TAE) power plants will be significantly larger (in terms of area) than Helion's.

Yes, that is because of TAE's back end is steam turbine + generator + condenser heat to electric conversion, but for a retrofit fossil plant that is a sunk cost. OTH, Helion avoids the retrofit restriction with direct conversion **using the same hardware used for fusion,** a massive advantage for new installations. TAE will need to **eventually** go for direct conversion.

Zap made a breakthrough with a liquid metal electrode which I thought (the electrode) was going to be their major issue. Zap seems to have achieved a good model for their approach based on published papers, so it may be just a matter of time to get high enough electrode current & electronics. Maybe someone has better insight on what the issue is if that is not the delay.

[TallDave]

if they all work, I can't see how Zap or TAE could compete with Helion economically in the long run, but at least they'd be much closer than ARC

of course any of them may not work

TAE does not use massive power pulses to produce B field pulses like Helion as their machine is steady state operation. Instead, they accomplish stability with continuous NBI. Capital cost per machine therefore is lower (their latest breakthrough)). However, (at this point) they need higher capital cost on the Fusion generator power conversion back end (works for retrofitting existing fossil plants). They do have the possibility of direct conversion

ah, but steady-state magnetic fields are far harder and more expensive to maintain... you need both superconductors and cryo

and that's the easy part, relative to keeping an FRC stable for commercially relevant time periods

neutral-beam injection is not free either

direct energy recovery in this scheme is going to be very different because there's no decompression phase

I appreciate Trump's enthusiasm for FRCs, but this is why I say Helion is probably going to win this race before anyone else even gets off the line... assuming they can get it to work

[Skipjack]

I like comparing the neutral beam injection with filling a leaky bucket with a firehose while carrying it to the fire.